Yitro

Yitro Posted On Jan 1, 1980 | Haftarah Reading
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This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh.

 Isaiah 6:1-7:6, 9:5-6

Chapter 6

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I beheld my Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; and the skirts of His robe filled the Temple. 2 Seraphs stood in attendance on Him. Each of them had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his legs, and with two he would fly.

3 And one would call to the other,
“Holy, holy, holy!
The Lord of Hosts!
His presence fills all the earth!”

4 The doorposts would shake at the sound of the one who called, and the House kept filling with smoke. 5 I cried,

“Woe is me; I am lost!
For I am a man of unclean lips
And I live among a people
Of unclean lips;
Yet my own eyes have beheld
The King Lord of Hosts.”

6 Then one of the seraphs flew over to me with a live coal, which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 He touched it to my lips and declared,

“Now that this has touched your lips,
Your guilt shall depart
And your sin be purged away.”

8 Then I heard the voice of my Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me.” 9 And He said, “Go, say to that people:

‘Hear, indeed, but do not understand;
See, indeed, but do not grasp.’
10 Dull that people’s mind,
Stop its ears,
And seal its eyes — 
Lest, seeing with its eyes
And hearing with its ears,
It also grasp with its mind,
And repent and save itself.”

11 I asked, “How long, my Lord?” And He replied:

“Till towns lie waste without inhabitants
And houses without people,
And the ground lies waste and desolate — 
12 For the Lord will banish the population — 
And deserted sites are many
In the midst of the land.

13“But while a tenth part yet remains in it, it shall repent. It shall be ravaged like the terebinth and the oak, of which stumps are left even when they are felled: its stump shall be a holy seed.”
Sepharadim end here

Chapter 7
1 In the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel marched upon Jerusalem to attack it; but they were not able to attack it.

2 Now, when it was reported to the House of David that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, their hearts and the hearts of their people trembled as trees of the forest sway before a wind. 3 But the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the Upper Pool, by the road of the Fuller’s Field. 4 And say to him: Be firm and be calm. Do not be afraid and do not lose heart on account of those two smoking stubs of firebrands, on account of the raging of Rezin and his Arameans and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because the Arameans — with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah — have plotted against you, saying, 6 ‘We will march against Judah and invade and conquer it, and we will set up as king in it the son of Tabeel,’

Chapter 9

5 For a child has been born to us,
A son has been given us.
And authority has settled on his shoulders.
He has been named
“The Mighty God is planning grace;
The Eternal Father, a peaceable ruler” — 
6 In token of abundant authority
And of peace without limit
Upon David’s throne and kingdom,
That it may be firmly established
In justice and in equity
Now and evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts
Shall bring this to pass.

Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
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